Comet (1813)

History
United States
Name: Comet
Owner: Daniel D. Smith
Builder:
  • Comet was built and launched at Pittsburgh.
  • Daniel French designed and built the engine and power train at Brownsville.
Laid down: Winter, 1813
Launched: Spring, 1813
In service: June, 1813
Out of service: After July 3, 1814
Fate: Decommissioned after engine was removed.
Notes:
  • Comet was the second steamboat to navigate the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.
  • Daniel D. Smith was the first to defy the steamboat monopoly in Orleans Territory granted to Livingston and Fulton.
General characteristics
Length: 52 ft (15.8 m)
Beam: 8 ft (2.4 m)
Propulsion:
  • One steam engine
  • One paddlewheel at stern

The steamboat Comet was the second steamboat to navigate the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.[1] The Comet was owned by Daniel D. Smith and she was launched in 1813 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.[2][3] With an engine and power train designed and built by Daniel French, the Comet was the first of the Western steamboats to be powered by a horizontal high-pressure engine with its piston rod connected to a stern paddle wheel.[4][5] Daniel D. Smith was the first to defy the steamboat monopoly in Orleans Territory granted to Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton.

Pittsburgh

Daniel French built the steam engine at Brownsville, Pennsylvania which was installed in the Comet at Pittsburgh prior to July 1813.[6][7]

On July 13, the Comet departed Pittsburgh for Louisville, Kentucky.[8]

On September 7, Robert Fulton wrote to John Livingston[9] at Pittsburgh inquiring about the "build, capacity and services of the Comet".[10] In the fall of 1813, a public notice was published in the The Pittsburgh Gazette: "FULTON & LIVINGSTON, have ordered a suit to be brought against Daniel French, and the owners of the Steam Boat COMET, for a violation of the essential part of their patent."[11] On November 11, Robert Fulton responded to these threats by writing to John Livingston at Pittsburgh, "As to Mr. Smith and his steam boat, I must attack him where he does me damage. There is no damage in making a steam boat, the damage is in using her to the detriment of the original inventor."[12] Apparently, since a trial date was never entered in the docket book for the Allegheny County court, the threatened lawsuit was not pursued.[13]

New Orleans

The Comet, after steaming from Pittsburgh to the port of New Orleans, was entered for the first time in the New Orleans Wharf Register on February 25, 1814.[14] The Comet was identified as "Steam Boat, Capt. Lake", and the fee was "$6".[14] Subsequently, on March 15, April 7, May 2 and July 3, 1814 the Comet was identified as "Steam Boat (Lake)", and the fee was "$6".[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ Lloyd (1856), p. 42:
    The second steamboat of the West was a diminutive vessel called the Comet. She was rated at twenty-five tons. Daniel D. Smith was the owner, and D. French the builder of this boat. Her machinery was on a plan for which French had obtained a patent in 1809. She went to Louisville in the summer of 1813, and descended to New Orleans in the spring of 1814. She afterwards made two voyages to Natchez, and was then sold, taken to pieces, and the engine was put up in a cotton factory.
  2. ↑ Morrison, p. 202-3:
    In 1813, Daniel French, of Pittsburg, Pa., altered a river barge, giving her more freeboard by building up her sides, into which he placed an engine constructed by himself. This vessel was about twenty-five tons burden, called the "Comet," and was owned by Daniel D. Smith. She went as far as Louisville in the summer of the same year, and during the next year went to New Orleans. She made a few voyages between the latter city and Natchez, after which she was sold, her engine taken out and put up in a cotton mill, and her hull broken up.
  3. ↑ Miller, p. 69:
    In the summer of 1813, Daniel D. Smith altered a river barge at Pittsburgh, using an engine invented by Daniel French. The craft, called the Comet, was sent down to New Orleans and also made a few trips to Natchez, but apparently was unsuccessful in the trade...
  4. ↑ Daniel French granted US Patent (October 9, 1809), Propulsion of Vessels, 1791–1810, US Patent Office Scientific
  5. ↑ Hunter (1993), p. 127:
    The first departure from the Boulton and Watt type of engine was the French oscillating cylinder engine with which the first three steamboats built by the Brownsville group were equipped- the Comet (25 tons, 1813), the Despatch (25 tons, 1814), and the Enterprise (75 tons, 1814). The first of these was not a success, and the Despatch made no name for herself; but the Enterprise was one of the best of the early western steamboats.
  6. ↑ Congressional Edition, Volume 2552 (1889), p. 188:
    In the mean while, however, several other steam-boats had been built. The Comet was constructed at Pittsburgh in 1813, 52 feet long and 8 feet beam, with 50 to 60 pounds of steam per inch, and 20 to 30 strokes a minute.
  7. ↑ Congressional Edition, Volume 2552 (1889), p. 193:
    The first high-pressure engine was built in 1813, by French, at Brownsville, Pa., and was placed on the Comet. It was an oscillating engine, but not working well, was taken out and placed in saw-mill at Natchez in 1814.
  8. ↑ Pittsburgh Gazette, 16 July 1813:
    The Steam Boat COMET, lately built at this place by Mr. Smith, sailed on Tuesday last for Louisville, in Kentucky. She is intended as a regular packet between this place and the Falls of Ohio, and is handsomely fitted up for the accommodation of passengers.
  9. ↑ Cox, p. 64:
    Fulton appointed his wife's uncle and Chancellor Livingston's second cousin, John Livingston, as agent for the Ohio Steam Boat Navigation Company.
  10. ↑ Kunz, p. 29
  11. ↑ Pittsburgh Gazette, 29 October and 6 November 1813:
    TO THE PUBLIC. FULTON & LIVINGSTON, have ordered a suit to be brought against Daniel French, and the owners of the Steam Boat COMET, for a violation of the essential part of their patent. When good boats, such as are now constructing in every part of the United States, can be built under Fulton and Livingston's undoubted patent rights, persons should be cautious of involving themselves in a labyrinth of expensive and tedious law suits. The infraction of their rights, in the State of New-York, cost a company their boats, damages and expenses, amounting to sixty thousand dollars, and was the ruin of many of the parties concerned. FULTON & LIVINGSTON. October 14, 1813
  12. ↑ The literal transcription of the image of the original letter was edited by the addition of one capital letter and four punctuation marks, not to change its meaning but solely to improve its clarity.
  13. ↑ Prothonotary, County of Allegheny, First Floor City County Building, 414 Grant St., Pittsburgh, PA 15219-2469, Old Docket Book
  14. 1 2 3 New Orleans Wharf Register

References

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